The Country Wife by William Wycherley was published in 1675 and premiered the same year at the Theatre

Royal in London. It is classified in English literature as a Restoration comedy. The term restoration refers to a historical period in England from 1660 to 1700, marking the era when monarchy was restored to England after ten years of rule by Parliament. The term comedy, as a subgenre of drama, refers to a play in which the protagonist vanquishes, morally and financially, his opponents. The opponents are "bad guys" and represent the previous generation's decrepit values and hypocrisy. By contrast, the new generation is younger and more progressive. The happy ending of these plays is also supposed to be a restoration of order from the chaos and confusion fostered by the older generations dishonesty and greed. It would, however, be wrong to claim that The Country Wife realizes all of the above characteristics of a Restoration comedy. Immensely popular as a stage production, the play itself does not aim for any moral high ground: the bad guys remain bad; the protagonist does not appear to change a bit. The play's only resolution is that the Fidgets end badly, leaving an unrepentant Mr. Horner triumphant over his foes: he has seduced Margery Pinchwife, the simple country wife; mission accomplished. The Country Wifes place in English literature is more relevant to the history of drama than to the literary canon itself. Full of banter and repartee, it is fun to read, but the play is most remembered for a particular kind of influence it has over present-day British and American comedies. The Country Wife makes fun of peoples manners as they behave in public. According to Wycherley, people from urban societies were naturally affectatious, which means that they put on airs without even consciously trying to do so. Wycherley commented on such traits with one-liners that induced laughter from the audience. He then often explained the line with another witty remark, provoking more laughter. That is what Restoration comedies ultimately gave to the dramatic comedies that followed them. One can follow the genealogy of one-liners all the way from Restoration comedies to the works of Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Neil Simon. Brilliantly started by Wycherley and fellow Restoration playwright William Congreve, one-liners even continue to this day on late-night talk shows by hosts such as David Letterman and Jay Leno.

The Country Wife Summary

Act I The Country Wife begins with Frank Horner instructing a "doctor" to spread the word around London that Horner is impotent. The impotence, he says, is the result of a sexually transmitted disease acquired in Paris. Horner's purpose in spreading this rumor is to seduce London's high society women. These wealthy women will be caught off guard if they believe him to be impotent, for they will not suspect his intentions to be sexually motivated. This stratagem actually takes up a very small portion of the play's plot. The consequence of Horne's ploy is really what most of the play is about. Odd as Horners scheme may seem, there seems to be a method in his madness. On the one hand, it goes against the grain of male bravado to declare oneself impotent.

The feigned impotence starts a chain of reactions that brings out the lascivious nature of all the upper class city-bred women, lurking meanly behind their aggressive references to morality and virtue. This is a typical Restoration and eighteenth century satirical technique, borrowed from the Roman satirists like Horace and Juvenal. An innocent or a naf or, someone with a fundamental human defect, is presented to society in a story; and everybody begins to take advantage of him or her with the pretense of helping. Wycherley had borrowed the plot of this play from two French comedies (which, in turn, had Latinate origins) and improvised on them. In this first act, Horners central stratagem sets off a sort of the battle of the sexes. We have scenes in which the men (Horner, Dorrilant, Sparkish and Harcourt) rail away at the so-called ladies of fashion. In another scene, women and men criticize each other for their hypocrisy. In yet another, women talk to each other and criticize men. In all of them, however, the talking point is Horners impotency. Horners impotency affects, very differently, two couplesMr. and Mrs. Pinchwife and Sir Jasper and Lady Fidge. Mr. Pinchwife is the epitome of a jealous husband and is absolutely unwilling to let his wife out of his sight. Despite the rumor about him, Pinchwife does not trust him. This is not the case with Sir Jasper. To Jasper, Horners alleged impotency is amusing, making his wife (and other women) safe with the dissimulator. So he rather encourages Lady Fidget to be in the eunuchs presence while he is away keeping important people company. Lady Fidget, however, knows about Horners ruse and willingly participates in her husbands delusion because it suits her licentious interests and yet keeps her virtuous veneer intact. In sharp contrast are the Pinchwifes. Brought here by her husband because his sister, Alithea, is to wed Mr. Sparkish, a caricature of a London Spark, or playboy wit, Margery Pinchwife is very curious about her first visit to London, eager not only to visit the playhouses, but meet the city gallants, one of whom, she has been told, is eager to seduce her. Act II The scene begins with Margery Pinchwife asking Alithea about sights worth visiting in London. But even as Alithea describes them, Pinchwife enters the stage and Margery straight away demands that he show her the sights of London, especially the playhouses. Mr. Pinchwife has to resort to keeping Margery as a prisoner in her own home. He tries to justify his actions by telling his gullible wife stories of male theater goers who lust for young women, and even says to her that there is a man who is angling for her. This only succeeds in making the young wife even more curious about who this man. Soon Sparkish and Harcourt enter the stage andas if on cue to Pinchwifes warning Harcourt openly flirts with Alithea right in front of Sparkish, Alitheas betrothed. Not surprisingly, Pinchwife is outraged. Sparkish, however, is amused because a London spark (a colloquialism for a "man-about-town") is not supposed to be jealous of other men admiring his wife. Thus, Sparkish would rather barter his fiance for a compliment to his wit. He has his laugh, and Harcourt has his woman. One of the interesting features of The Country Wife is Wycherleys to-and-fro plot, oscillating between a semi-serious episode of Harcourt and Alithea, and completely nonsensical farce involving the rest. Act II ends with the London ladies, Lady Fidget, Lady Squeamish and her granddaughter, appearing on the stage, demanding Pinchwife to let his new wife go to a play with them. But Mr. Pinchwife will not relent, insisting that she stay home while he goes to

the play. As if to balance Pinchwifes paranoid jealousy, Wycherley gives us Sparkish and Sir Jasper, both of whom are eager that their women spend time with another man, although for very different reasons. As we have already seen, to Sparkish, flirting with ones wife is a fashion; to Fidget, however, his urging Lady Fidget to be with Horner is his way of protecting her from other sexual predators roaming the London theaters. Besides, he is under the impression that Horner is impotent. The fact that Lady Fidget knows Horner is not, and pretends to shun his company in public, only to jump into his arms in private, adds to Wycherleys vicious criticism of womens morals. He builds up a slow tension between the Pinchwifes, Sparkishes and Fidgets the fools and the hypocrites on the one side, and the Horners and Harcourts on the other, men who, though of questionable morals, are at least not two-faced and pretentious. Act III In the third act, technically the middle of the play, the plot, as they say, thickens. Pinchwife decides to take his wife to the play, but by dressing her up as a man. His ploy of disguising his wife as a man only the young woman look only more attractive. It does not take Horner long to discover that she is a woman, and, taking advantage of the disguise, he starts flirting with Margery outrageously, pretending to make love to his sister, the real Mrs. Pinchwife. This drives the jealous husband batty and he thoroughly turns on the innocent Margery Pinchwife. Inevitably, Mrs Pinchwife realizes that this is the man who is supposed to be in love with her and falls in love with him also. Meanwhile, Harcourt is in love with Alithea and is desperate to knock her off Sparkish. Sparkish participates, unwittingly taking... Complete The